Indigo Kid - II: Fist Full Of Notes (2015)

It’s been an eventful three years since the release of Indigo Kid 1, the album that catapulted guitarist, traveller and surfer Dan Messore into the public eye and established him as one of the foremost young jazz improvisers and composers in the land.

Dan’s been involved in a bewildering variety of projects including the Bristol-based trio Michelson Morley with Get The Blessing saxophonist Jake McMurchie, Lacuna, a quintet with trumpeter Steve Waterman and the nu-folk group Little Arrow and has played with some of the finest musicians around. His residency at key London venue The Vortex, “View From The Tower”, in which he and a choice band of young musicians explore the compositions of British jazz composers, has become an essential fixture in the capital’s jazz calendar.

Dan’s music is in fact as wide ranging and broad minded as his travelling would indicate. Costa Rica has been home and inspiration for the guitarist and this cosmopolitan outlook, as much as his love of the wild country, have clearly influenced his playing. In fact this new album is inspired by two apparently contrasting geographical areas, as Dan makes clear: “When writing for this album I had a clear intention of connecting two places that are muses to me. I am very much inspired by natural surroundings and my interaction with them and these two locations, Pembrokeshire, West Wales and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, are both areas of wild, abundant natural beauty; I have been fortunate enough to live in both. The connectedness to rustic dwelling, beach fires, surfing and an outdoors lifestyle was something that I wanted to try and convey in the composition.”

This philosophy of a spirit of place - having a location as a character in the work - was deepened by the loss of Dan’s father, an event that stirred up memories of both places and is memorialised in the compositions Carpet Boys and The Healing Process.

Sax player Iain Ballamy has been another spirit guide in Dan’s career and his playing on the first album showed how far Dan had come since studying under Iain at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2003. For the second album, Iain introduced Dan to another protégé, the fine saxophonist Trish Clowes. The rhythm section has also evolved with powerhouse Martin France taking the drum stall and ex-Bill Bruford and Steeleye Span bassist Tim Harries forming a powerful back line. Martin and Tim also contributed greatly to the arrangements in what is definitely a band album.

The third element that Dan’s keen to emphasise on the new disc is his increased use of electronics and effects. In order to bring out the open landscapes that inspire him this extra depth and ambience provides contrast, a three dimensional feel and texture that evokes that spirit of place. It also adds an undertow of emotion, what Dan describes as “...an acknowledgement of pain” which gives these songs great power.

Dan’s jazz chops are evident (as jazz writer Kevin LeGendre pointed out “It’s fair to quote names like Pat Metheny and...Frisell as references, but the seam of jazz Messore is mining goes further back to such as Charlie Byrd and Jim Hall”), but his playing also incorporates elements of folk music, and specifically the English folk guitar sound of Richard Thompson (for instance), and again this adds to the feeling for the countryside, nature and man’s place in it that we hear in compositions such as Snow on the Presellis and Quiet Waters.

The Indigo Kid’s back in town, which can only be good news for Dan’s many fans and for the UK and international jazz scene as we watch this fine guitarist continue to surf the wave of success.